InCompany by Attire Club Summer 2019 by InCompany by Attire Club

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Editorial: Sommernovelette Summer is an atmosphere. For most people, the warmest season is associated with vacation, a school-free time and long days of thoughts and events. Summer has its own smells - from the fresh grass of the morning in early summer to the burning streets of midday in July to the aired wooden cabinets in your old home in August. Summer looks like a chalk drawing on a sidewalk, it feels like an evening party that starts as the sunlight mixes with the hanging lights on a string and which goes deep into the dark, dark night. For many, summer is about the beach and feeling primordial, as you can experience the world on your skin: the salty water, the fine sand, the rough rocks of the sea. The heat of the sun is one of the biggest parts of summer; it’s what decides your outfits (which allow you now more options and more natural looks) and it’s the element around which you change your outfits (when the night comes, the sunglasses come off and the jacket comes on). Summer is about the noise of the night, the quiet of the streets in the afternoon and the forest concerto put on by birds, bugs and rivers. It’s the long introspective nights watching the skies and following the rotation of the stars. The warm days of summer make us dream of sandy beaches we’ve seen or dreamt of and of dry bushes at the end of the world. Summer is the season to do things. Summer is a narrative as a description.

The Attire Club Team

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InCompanyt AttirehClub Released by FRAQUOH AND FRANCHOMME Chief Executive Officer Dan Dimitriu Creative Director Iosif Trif Write letters to the editor iosif.trif@attireclub.org Visit our website attireclub.org Contact & Advertising office@attireclub.org Address Theresiengasse 50 Top 1 1180 Vienna Austria Telephone 0097 150 12 801 73 Follow us Facebook: facebook.com/attireclub

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“Let’s Talk about Gucci” Photo: Attire Club

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Contents Summer 2019

Editorial Sommernovelette Summer moments. u3

Attire Club World Photos from Last Summer’s Edition The AC album. u 10 Travel Notebook Evening on the Rhine A Swiss perspective. u 12 L’Atelier d’Horologerie Daizoh Makihara’s Fragile Dreams The new classic Japanese culture. u 14 Culture Festive Clothes for Thomas Sunday A shiny custom in Eastern Europe. u 18 Brands 6 Things We Like about Twissic The new thin watch brand. u 20 Metafashion The Social Media Rollercoaster Digital or physical? u 24 Fashion Quotes Famous Sayings Be inspired! u 32

In Their Own Words The Christian Bendek Florence Look Book The blogger shares insight into what style is to him and his newest looks from Italy! u 34

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Style Diary Summer Finds Scrapbooking summer things. u 40 Fashion History The Ups and Downs of Hat-Wearing The anthropology of modern hat-wearing. u 54 Travel & Culture N for New York City Fun facts about the City that Never Sleeps. u 58 Trends Angus Chiang Unveils His Latest Summer Collection The new vintage. u 63 Current Obsessions World Adventure Watches Different watches for all time zones. u 64 Le Bon Temps The Breitling Superocean HĂŠritage II Chronograph 44 Outerknown The ocean-saving watch. u 67 The Attire Club Party Handbook The Ingredients for Cool Parties! Tips for throwing a memorable party! u 68 Style Guide The Guide to Caring for Velvet Shoes Special care for special shoes. u 76 Fashion & Tech What to Wear in Space New space suits from NASA! u 78

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Cars Rolls-Royce Celebrates 115 Years of Excellence A special occasion for the great RR. u 82 The Attire Club Mood Diary Our Moodboard as a Visual Journal Embroidered book covers. u 84 Cinema Culture The Film Dossier From Diana Vreeland to Polly Magoo (well, they’re closer than you’d think)! u 90

Television Recapping The Crown The crown of contemporary TV. u 92 Trends Namacheko’s New Summer Collection Runway styles. u 93 Events The Sardhadchi Cavalry Team in St. Moritz Equestrian acrobatics. u 94

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YListen to a song with the cotents!

QR Code Glossary Discover the Brands Presented in this Issue Use your phone or tablet to discover the webpages featured in this issue. u 96

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The Smart Magazine Attire Club is offering a complete menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s style, fashion and lifestyle experience, centered around the AC website. To discover our universe and over 1000 articles that will offer you the tools to develop your style, as well as fashion inspiration and cultural insights and to interact with us and be part of our community, visit us online.

attireclub.org +See our QR Code Glossary at the end of the magazine

AT T I R E

C LU B

Images from the InCompany by Attire Club Summer 2018 issue. Photos by Attire Club

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WO R L D

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T R AV E L

N OT E B O O K

From the Attire Club Travel Archive

Evening on the Rhine The city of Basel is one of Switzerland’s main touristic attractions, drawing many visitors yearly due to its rich history and strong cultural scene. The Basel Minster (German: Basler Münster) is one of the main landmarks of the town. It is a strong presence overlooking the city and impresses with its red sandstone architecture and colored roof tiles, its two slim towers and the cross-shaped intersection of the main roof. The Münster is listed as a heritage site of national significance in Switzerland. Originally, the church was a Catholic cathedral, but today it is a Reformed Protestant church. It was built between 1019 and 1500 in Romanesque and Gothic styles. The late Romanesque building was unfortunately destroyed in 1356 by an earthquake and was later rebuilt by Johannes Gmünd, who was at the same time employed for building the Freiburg Münster. The Minster is overlooking the Rhine, a historical waterway responsible for much of the town’s old trade history. The river is an important part of the city, as people often come here to swim and tourists take a ride on its old-timey ferries. The Rhine is not just a motor for trade, but it is also a source of inspiration for artists and a provider of leisure for locals and tourists alike. Photo: Attire Club. 12 | InCompanytAttirehClub

From the Online Edition

Attire Club is the ultimate resource for complete style guides, fashion inspiration and cultural insights that provide you with the tools you need for a continuous style development. Geared towards the sharp modern man, Attire Club offers practical “you can do it, here’s how” articles that will make you not only look better, but also feel better and more confident. With a groundbreaking new concept, AC is the essential online publication that brings out the best in who you are.

Photo: Attire Club

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L’ AT E L I E R

D ’ H O R L O G E R I E

Daizoh Makihara’s

Fr a g i l e Dre a m s Daizoh Makihara is Japanese watchmaker. He has a passion for traditional craftsmanship and an interest in innovation. Recently, Daizoh stepped into the spotlight of the watchmaking world as he used Edo-kiriko, the traditional Japanese technique of cutting delicate patterns into glass, to create an elaborate dial for a soft and elegant watch. His amazing design combines traditional Japanese craftsmanship with Swiss haute horlogerie techniques, resulting in an outstanding piece for which Daizoh prepared for years.

aizoh Makihara was born in Aichi, Japan in 1979. While watchmaking was already on his radar when he graduated from high school, he did not know how one becomes a watchmaker, so young Daizoh followed another path and became a cook. He worked for 8 years as a cook, specializing in Italian dishes more precisely, and, at the age 27, he enrolled in a watch making school in order to follow his old dream. It was “the beginning of a second life” he says, and remembers that he learned how to fix his watch at this new school he was attending. At one moment, circumstances made it so that he got the chance to travel all the way to Switzerland and meet none other than Mr. Philippe Dufour, who is one of the most revered independent watchmakers of the world. His watches are regarded as the pinnacle of traditional hand-finishing and he is a symbol for the industry. Some people even call him a “living legend”.

making tourbillons and he even had a teaching job at the Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry. While working there as a teacher, he made his first watch. From there, it was only a matter of time until 2017, when he founded his own brand.

ne year later, in 2018, he released his emblematic watch named Kiku-tsunagi-mon sakura, or “chrysanthemum pattern cherry blossoms”. The watch was a disruptive piece that got people amazed at the outstanding level of artistry and craftsmanship that was put into the watch. The wristwatch features a hand-engraved, clear crystal glass dial, as well as a movement that were made by Daizoh himself at his workshop in the Japanese city of Saitama. The dial is made of Edo-kiriko, a traditional

For Daizoh, meeting Mr. Dufour was, as he explains, “a turning point”, as this was the moment he became sure of the fact that he wanted not only to repair watches, but to make a watch himself. Daizoh maintained a close professional relation with Mr. Dufour and says that the Swiss craftsman taught him “everything about watchmaking”. Afterwards, he took on various jobs, which included attireclub.org |

Japanese cut-crystal glass technique that has its origins in the18th century. Classified by the Japanese government as a traditional craft, Edo-kiriko is hand-made. There are very few people who can cut glass in Edokiriko, and, even fewer who can cut it so thin. Edokiriko is a technique used mostly for bigger pieces and Daizoh went through a lot just to find someone who believed that glass could be cut so closely - under 1 mm. But, after many trials and errors, he finally managed to find someone who could. In terms of design, two national symbols of Japan, the chrysanthemum and cherry blossom (or sakura) are hand-engraved on the crown and also the on bridges of the movement. The case is made from 18k pink gold and is 42mm in diameter. But for Daizoh, the worth of a watch is given by its finishing (maybe something he got from Mr. Dufour?) and thus he insisted on making the most beautiful polishing possible. The collection is limited to 8 pieces, with a price of ¥5.58m including Japanese tax, which is equivalent to about US $50000. The delivery time for a watch is of 10 months.

y managing to include not just visual aesthetic references to Japanese art and culture, but also by finding a new way of using an old Japanese craft, Daizoh is bridging the past with the future as many young Japanese people, who may not be very interested in traditional techniques, are now discovering ways in which their crafts can be used today.

hen pondering on how his watch was received, Daizoh explains that most people were very excited to see it and open to the way he worked with Edo-kiriko, but were, above all, amazed that he was able to use the technique in such an innovative way. “I was very happy to hear that” he recalls.

ow, at the end of the decade, Daizoh is planning on widening his network by connecting with stores in Japan, but also by attending events and fairs such as Baselworld. At the moment, he is a candidate for a membership in the Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants, a Zurich-based non-profit association, founded in 1985 by Svend Andersen and Vincent Calabrese. At the moment, the AHCI has 30 members, 8 honorific members and 7 candidates.

ith his skill and talent and with a lot of determination, Daizoh has the ability to take his craft and brand to much success, as he bridges the past with the future and the West with the far East, all while offering amazing timepieces which are delicate and elegant and which can be regarded as being of the highest order of watchmaking.

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Discover Daizoh’s website at daizohmakihara.jp

C U LT U R E

FESTIVE GARMENTS FOR THOMAS SUNDAY

very year, on the first Sunday after Easter (also known as Thomas Sunday), in the old Romanian town of Brasov takes place a unique and interesting event. The “Parada Junilor” is a traditional parade during which formations of men on horseback ride into what once was the old town. Their horses are highly decorated and their costumes are highly colorful and shiny, unlike most South-Eastern European traditional clothes. The festivity ends with the groups of men gathering in a special place at the foot of a mountain where they eat, drink and, most importantly engage in a mace-throwing game, where you are supposed to throw a mace in the air as high as you can and catch it when it arrives back. Some juni even jump themselves when they throw it. Their traditions are a mix of pagan and Christian rituals. Years ago, they even did a ritual where they would take lots things they owned and traveled at sundown to the top of a high mountain. Then, when the sun came out, they and their wives would throw things towards the sun so that it won’t get stolen by a werewolf. There days, their celebration is strongly tied to Easter and the local customs and many of the old rituals are said to have turned to games. Their place of meeting is one that is strongly tied to magic and, back in the day, these colorful men are said to have had an important role in the local society; today, they are known to have just a more ceremonial role, even though the cohesion of the groups is still going strong.

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B R A N D S

6 Things We Like about Twissic

Twissic is a new watch brand that takes pride in offering some of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thinnest and lightest watches. With a classic design and interchangeable straps made from full grain leather sourced from a renowned Italian tannery, the label is a great new competitor on the market in its price range. The London-based brand was funded through Kickstarter and enjoys a lot of attention from people from all around the world. 20 | InCompanytAttirehClub

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We got the chance to try out one of their watches and here are the conclusions regarding what we like about them: Design. The watches proposed by Twissic have a simple and minimal design. While sometimes in the watch business this can be detrimental, it can also be a great plus point, as a simple watch is great both for everyday wear as well as for an office environment and goes with pretty much any type of outfit. Moreover, the fact that it has a clean design and doesn’t have a date feature means that you don’t have to worry about it showing the wrong date. Changeability. Because Twissic watches come with different straps, you can change it up whenever you feel like it. The different straps will give your watch a whole different vibe, which will work with different outfits and on different occasions. For example, a white strap may work on a sunny day when you’re having brunch by the sea, while a darker one will work at an evening event. Versatility. Twissic watches feature colors and finishes that are rather neutral in nature, which makes them highly versatile. In fashion, colors such as brown, beige, white, black, khaki, ivory, etc. are considered neutral and can be matched to any other color. Metallics are also neutrals, which means that you can wear gold and silver with anything (including with each other). Basically, what this means is that a Twissic watch is most likely to look good on any outfit and will be a good match to any other accessories you might wear. Durability. Despite its thickness of only about 4.8 mm, the Twissic watches have a Swiss movement that has a battery life of 6 years, which is quite impressive. It’s a great piece for those who want not to have to worry about setting the watch. Travel-friendly. Because Twissic watches are so light and thin, they are great to take with you on a trip. If you pack up one watch and, say, 3-4 straps, you will add a lot of style to your bags without adding a lot of weight.

A Twissic watch can be a great addition to anyone’s wardrobe and they also make for great gifts for both men and women. They strike a great balance between a minimal design and a stylish accessory and, above all, are extremely comfortable and light, which makes them great pieces to have.

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Discover Twissic online at twissic.com

Price. Last, but certainly not least, the price point for Twissic watches is a very good one, as the watches cost a little over £200 (about €225 or $250), which makes them rather affordable and well-priced. Separate straps come at £45 (about €51 or $57).

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M E TA FA S H I O N

the social media rollercoaster Social media appeared as a great idea to mirror social relations and to offer people an easy and fast way of communicating. However, after just a few years, the very concept of social media has many people grinding their teeth, as platforms that were once made for fun and meeting new people have transformed into anxiety-provoking weapons and tiresome places to be, ruled by countless and unclear laws where people get frustrated with fake followers and fake lives and can even get “deplatformed” or “depersoned”. Let’s take a look back at the decade of social media (and of the selfie) and at how this giant concept developed, changed and fell. 24 | InCompanytAttirehClub

ocial media appeared in the late 1990s, a time when the internet was so new that only computer nerds knew what the “@” symbol meant. Later on, in the early 2000s, the blogging concept appeared and, in parallel, out of that concept, more social networks rose and captured the attention of people from all over the world. Sites such as MySpace were very popular among 20-30 year olds, with the picture of default first contact Tom being probably one of the most recognizable images of that generation. The MySpace top eight friends caused a lot of drama and emotions and people enjoyed customizing their profiles with heavy CSS and “glitter” layouts.

One site to rule them all

oon enough, one website emerged that expanded like wildfire. Facebook, of course, was the platform that virtually sent every other social media website into bankruptcy. But FB did not appear as the giant it became. Invented by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was initially a platform for connection and gossip between Harvard students, which many used to find dates or to have casual sex. But, soon enough, it grew into what seemed to be an unstoppable giant. In parallel, platforms such as Twitter, which allowed people to send out brief messages for the whole world to see and YouTube, which allowed video sharing appeared and grew. Other platforms such as Tumblr or Pinterest emerged later and took a small piece of the social media pie, acting as a crossover between social media and blogging. At first, social media was, as expected, something that mostly high school and college students used. It was a place where they could post photos, update statuses and share links they found interesting with their friends. It was all about creating a space where you could express yourself and let others know what you are about. The customization options of MySpace were gone with FB, but people did not seem to miss those very much and were OK with sharing a standardized format they would fill out with personal content. Every once in a while, parents or employers would find out what people posted on their social media accounts, resulting in a bit of trouble for the user and these stories made people wary about what they would post.

It wasn’t very long until everyone (not literally of course) joined Facebook and Twitter and the sense of youth circle safety was gone, as people started editing themselves for social media. It did not take long until every brand was on Facebook as well, which was a great thing, as people could interact with their favorite labels and organizations directly, easily and quickly. However, there was also a downside, as in many cases, people’s profiles were linked to their workplace – both past and present.

The unsocial social network

oon enough, people started adding to their friends list a lot of the people they knew, with friends lists growing up to thousands of contacts.

As in physical life, people did not have contact with most of their friends list and heard from them only when FB sent out birthday notifications. There were even some users who made small experiments, where they changed their birth date to see how many people actually know when their birthday is. The advent of smartphones brought social media on everyone’s phones, with push notifications and chat included, thus making people connected to FB and Twitter 24/7 (at one point there was even talk that Facebook was trying to take over the whole OS of smartphones). Not long after, it became a meme, the idea of having people sit together staring down at their phones (and talking to each other). Rapidly, the idea of social alienation became quite popular: in a world where everyone is connected, people don’t really feel like they have any friends or even just hang out buddies. The notion that “if you are not on Facebook, you don’t exist” spread rapidly, but so did the attireclub.org |

idea that people with thousands of friends don’t really have anyone to talk to. Social anxiety was to be cured with faking importance and as well as business. Whenever people didn’t know what to do, they would look down at their phones pretending to be doing something more important or checking “e-mails” (meaning photos of other people’s breakfast meals). Social interactions also became rapidly bad. Probably most people have found themselves in a situation when they talk to someone and that person just scrolls or texts on their phone. This implies that they must or want to be somewhere else, with someone else and that they can’t really dedicate their full attention to what is going on, which can be quite frustrating to the other people present.

The mating game

s Instagram appeared, people had a third feed they could check every 3 minutes. Instagram is a great idea, but it is also a source of frustration for many. Since the app makes it so easy to follow and interact with people, users tend to desperately comment and try to draw the attention of those they would like to… date [read shag]. However, IG “models”, meaning hot people with lots of followers, don’t really reply or follow those who are not as good looking as them, causing lots of frustrations and annoyance in the world. Instagram is a whole world of itself: there are the models traveling to shop in exotic places, the “gym buffs” with tens of thousands of admirers and everyone who hopes to be / is / pretends to be an “influencer”. The idea of high social and, more exactly sexual market value is what drives Instagram, compared to other platforms. There’s videos of models too busy to text someone while a bunch of horny men yell happy birthday, throw confetti and get out of their way to make themselves visible to a woman with high indicators of good genes and fertility, only for her to allow them to pay and not remember their names five minutes later. Meanwhile, 125k people are spectators to this show.

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It probably needs to be said that all this online aggressiveness could not have been possible without the world of reality television, which defined the previous decade. In the 2000s, living quasi-fake lives for others to consume, sprinkled with conflict and fights normalized aggression and the overlapping of daily life with a projected, virtual life. Even though many were not fans of infinite cattiness, nail-breaking and weave-pulling, these things ended up shaping the worldwide culture and opened the way of everyone becoming some sort of public person, who has a narrative that can be questioned and modified, depending on how they respond to the zeitgeist.

Moreover, people bend over backwards to get likes on FB, IG and Twitter. There are tons of articles online about the most “Instagram-worthy” places from various cities and many people do things only to have what to post. While FB may be more open, on IG there seems to be an unwritten rule that if you are to post pictures of yourself with others, they should have at least the same sexual market value as yourself, unless they are your mother which shows how nice and grounded you are (implying that besides sexual market value you bring stability and little social unrest) or an orphan you use to virtue signal. In many ways, it can be argued that IG is a more subtle hookup app than Tindr or the like, even though people here share nude photos as much as on any other app and there have been lots of people discussing the prostitution rings going on in private messages. Israeli writer Sam Vaknin (known mostly for his book “Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited” and for his compelling YouTube presence and comments on social media) talked about how social media actually feeds from people’s desire to connect, but at the same time does not allow them to do so. Social media in general became for most people to be about attracting dates. In one form or another. If IG is all about physical attractiveness (which is quite fair, if you think about it), other platforms such as Twitter and above all, Tumblr became to be for most people about politics, activism and “taking a stance”. Tumblr was half about sharing porn, but it banned this type of content from its websites, leaving its users to discuss feminism and the American left. On Twitter, the limited number of characters you may use was the fuel for political arguments, swearing and doxing. Yes, doxing, the straw that broke the camel’s back… or at least one of the straws.

Thus, the very fuel of social media is inflammatory content and shock. The purpose of these companies is to generate clicks, likes and for people to see ads. Thus, they have an interest in pushing content that people want to engage in. While you may get a few likes and comments on the new cake you baked, an international disaster will generate a lot more engagement. In order to top that in terms of clicks, comments and ad views, you would - as we know from the reality show decade - something even more inflammatory. And so, people call each other worse and worse names, the opinions people express are more and more extreme and in no time we saw a world where extreme politics on all sides exist and where people find it hard to even have civil conversations. Twitter became the worst offender, as, due to its limitations on the number of characters a user can write, people “out-extremed” each other in short messages, thus the platform becoming a tool for rapid radicalization. It is through these factors (among others) that we have come to see so much disgust and hate on all sides rise so quickly. This money-making algorithm, which encourages negativity has also had a worldwide impact on the media and is what stands behind some highly unethical journalistic practices. Because one can’t publish the same story 10 times, but a more inflammatory version needs to be published daily despite things not being a complete disaster, “journalists” are now engaging in writing inflammatory things just for the clicks, which have as a result the radicalization of the users. As youtuber Tim Pool explained, “You need to radicalize, the content needs to avoid becoming stale «Is Trump A racist?” get you a million views but you can’t write the same story twice Tomorrow you write «Trump IS Racist» Then «Trump IS THE MOST Racist» Then «Is Trump Like Hitler» «Trump IS LIKE Hitler» «Trump Is WORSE Than Hitler» Of course that is over simplifying things a bit. The formula does need to be less apparent to people.” Also, the fact that there is no hierarchical structure to platforms like Twitter makes the whole conversation get thrown into chaos. If there is no (hierarchical) structure attireclub.org |

based on anything else but pure political games, one will never know what is qualitative and what is not, who is right and who is not, what really weighs in society and what does not. And so, any unimportant event or word can go viral, in a desperate search for collective meaning. This phenomenon is similar to a long bar fight with no purpose, all while people think they will gain massive purpose from it. Also, in regards to the concept of a loss of hierarchy it needs to be said that hierarchies represent history and purpose, in other words, having a hierarchy establishes what your goal is even when you cannot see it, a concept that has been almost completely lost today. It may make a come-back though in the coming decades. These characteristics have also changed the way we relate to time. Basically, everything has for social media addicts a shelf life of about 5 seconds until the new “big” thing comes along. If you think about it, the fashion world is a good example of that. Just a few years ago, designers would create a collection which they would work hard on, then it would be released during an exclusive show in London or Paris, then it would make it into the papers and on TV. Now, runway shows are streamed live, photos come in at a maximum of onetwo days later and everything goes around the world live, which makes the job of fashion houses quite hard. Moreover, the fact that things go “out” so rapidly, new news need to be invented every minute. This is how the unimportant becomes news and how people’s moral gets down, as they are forced to empathize with circumstances that they don’t really have any contact with.

Political dopamine

he elections held in most countries after 2015 or so were heavily influenced by social media. The fight between the modern left and the modern right (whatever they mean on any given day) has got many people fired up. And so, as platforms like Twitter or FB have a lot of political engagement and people are really obsessed with their candidate, the social media storms soon took a political turn with consequences. The once teenage forum of FB rapidly became a place

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where lefties fight righties, where people complain about wages, health care and every other problem they have. The “walls” once populated with pictures of Tila Tequila in a mini-bikini turned into avenues filled with billboards of socialist dreams, Hillary Clinton memes and everything in between. Political discussions on Facebook lead to many firings, to familial and work ostracizations and even to scandal. Doxing (the practice of finding out details about someone from their online activity and then hurting them by getting them fired or pressing charges against them in the physical realm) became a bitter pill to swallow for those enjoying the free services of Twitter and Facebook. In the end, as the old saying goes, “if a product is free, you are the product”. Doxing became a real threat, as the intense #SaveDave discussion [read “yelling over each other”] on the Rubin Report between Candance Owens and Blaire White proved.

And, as if this was not enough, people started to notice that algorithms were changed, that some talking points were banned, pages deleted and so on.

The religion of comfortableness

ocial media was enough psychological work as it was, as people were getting happy or sad based on the number of likes they got, which lead to an increase or decrease of anxiety, but now social media was all of the sudden about politics and other “light” subjects such as war, conspiracy theories and climate change. Rape, #MeToo and the gilets jaunes were now the things everybody weight in on and had to have an opinion on. These websites have now turned into a place where extreme superficiality meets badly discussed serious topics. Anger, sadness and problems are often overshared and glorified, without their root causes even being discussed, not to mention analyzed in a sincere manner. It’s all about gaining appreciation for your political “bravery”, for your capability to provide (if you show you have good food and enough money to travel, you are indicating that you are a mate with resources), but also about obtaining pity, attention and special preferences because of your personal suffering, political oppression and social victimhood. In an interesting twist, social media had become a combination of two contrasting fields: on one hand, there are the heavy subjects people take on and on the other hand, it’s all about sharing pictures of food and of the latest techno festival you’ve been to. Moreover, there is a clear contrast between the overly sexual world of promiscuity spread across these platforms and between the new puritan standards imposed by today’s moguls. “The world is ending, but we’ve expressed our disapproval so now we can party guilt-free” seems to be the anthem of late 2010s social media. Moreover, too much of the world these days seems to be happening online and its reflection in the material world is a world in black and white. People of the 2010s seem to lack nuance at a social discussion level, they tend to focus on things without making connections and going deep in the philosophy or implications of things, they want to take on serious issues but refuse to engage in real conversations and cannot stand to be contradicted. It has all become a shouting match where the people taking part are not

even talking to each other. It’s all about navel-gazing, narcissism, about using tragedy for social and personal gain and about making sure that you feel important and strong without taking on anything that is truly difficult. In the Attire Club 2018 Trend Forecast Report, we wrote “unfortunately, it seems that we are heading (if we’re not already at the door of ) Nietzsche’s idea of a world dominated by a chaos of cultural preferences. We’re more and more entering world where there is no «public square», or where there is a rather fake public square, to which countless niches are attached. «The Last Men» as Nietzsche called them, are men and women who turn their backs on challenging ideals, who pursue a banal existence and who do anything to avoid strong feelings. In a world emptied of meaning, people’s concerns are the trivial and the narcissistic. The people of 2018 seem to be very similar to what Nietzsche said when he talked about a future in which people will be timid to take real action and fool themselves that they are happy. 2018, and it seems most of the 2010s have been defined by the Nietzschean idea of a «religion of comfortableness». Real values are more and more set aside, as the mundane is placed in the spotlight.”

Facebook hits the fan

he political controversies in which social media giants found themselves resulted in scandals that got many people mad and talking. Former Facebook exec Chamath Palihapitiya said in a talk: “I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. You are being programmed.” Moreover, it was revealed that the delay between the time you open Twitter (the same seems to be happening on IG as well) and the moment you are notified of the number of new messages you have was intentionally designed to work in a way similar to a slot machine, in the sense that it creates anticipation in the user, which creates addiction to short-term relief, which eventually leads to depression and thus to the search for dopamine offered by likes and comments.

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thers virtual reality, Jaron Lanier, said in a Channel 4 interview that deleting your social media is not a good you can do just to yourself, but to society as a whole. In mid-May 2019, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes wrote a NY Times op-ed in which he claimed that the platform needs to be broken up. The editorial, which came in the midst of countless talks of whether social media platforms are publishers (and thus legally responsible for the content people post and share) or just facilitators (and thus needing to readdress their permanent bans on those who don’t support their views) spoke a lot about the disaster that Facebook can bring to society and why in his opinion Mark Zuckerberg “has created a leviathan” and that Mark has a “unilateral control over speech”, as the company was facing a lot of criticism for the bans they imposed on their users. Facebook’s bans, some of which were done even for things that were posted more than a decade ago, got people saying that the giant is ending itself.

Next steps

am Vaknin eloquently said in an interview that in the future, there will be two types of people in the world: those who are on social media and those who are not. He also said that he thinks that there will be a great divide between those who use social media and those who don’t.

The Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal of early 2018, during which it was revealed that CA had gathered personal data of millions of people’s Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political purposes was also a moment when people started thinking about the fact that they may be indeed the product of these platforms and that “nothing is as expensive as free”. The confusion around who collects and uses what data got many people questioning Facebook, Twitter and other services. There was even a whole campaign (ironically enough circulating through social media) called #DeleteFacebook and famous figures such as Elon Musk and Julian Assange (who had an “all public” page, of course) deleted their profiles. Later, some big brands with huge followings, such as CrossFit, also deleted their FB pages. One of the founding fa-

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In the end, it can be said that social media itself is not a bad thing necessary. As a concept, it is a useful tool: it is great for people who want to stay in touch with their favorite brands and to get news from them, it’s a wonderful tool to get updates on events and to be able to share creative works. But social media has come to a place where people are repulsed by others’ vain and narcissistic behaviors. It can be said that one of the defining characteristics of the 2010s are selfies and the hunt for hashtags and likes. However, this has in many ways decayed into a world of bad acting, of distrust and of manipulation. When people are comparing their inner state with someone’s highly produced and staged highlight of the day, you know there’s little connection and sociability about the medium. Whether social media will redefine itself or not and if so, how it will do it, is still a big question, but until then, it can’t be denied that for many, it has become a source of frustration, anxiety and angst, which makes it not just boring, but downright bad. These things affect not only the general population, but also children indirectly, as many 10 year olds follow their colleagues’ parents on IG, which can cause angst

and anger for the child in cause. Not to mention the continuous cyberbulling which changes direction depending on how society swings. Speaking of children, an essential discussion nobody really has is how ethical it is for parents to plaster the internet with photos of their children will they never be allowed to a private past? On April 2 2019, social media platform Google+ closed down. It had not been a great competitor in the game dominated by Facebook and Twitter, so the impact of it going away was not that big. During the last days of Google+, users could feel a vibe similar to the last days of high school, after all the grades are done and school is almost out - an attitude of “what are you going to do?” vis-à-vis all the rules and policies of the platform’s communities and groups. When a social media platform closes, people feel like a weight is lifted off their shoulders, as all the rules of when, how and, more importantly, what to post are suspended. Generally, those who have taken breaks from social media claim that this gave them a sense of liberation and of being more in touch with their own lives. The endless scrolling through social media pages is also a tiring experience. People see social media as a dangerous weapon. It has replaced being social without being a true substitute. Ultimately, in the end, social media is a thing that is embedded in modern culture, it would be hard to eradicate it and this is probably not necessary. However, rethinking the way we interact online is very important. We have already opened the flood gates to never-ending hate and separatism, to extremism and fear and to all the things these bring with them. The idea of social media is a great one: to have a place where you can find the latest

SOCIAL MEDIA by the numbers 3.2 billion people use social media accounts in 2019 68% of US adults have a Facebook account 90.4% of millenials are on Facebook 2 hours and 22 minutes is the average time people spend on social media daily Instagram stories numbers grew from 150 million / day in 2017 to 500 million in 2019

from your favorite brands and movers as well as from people you know. But if it causes a cultural and social disaster and turns everything upside down, we should consider whether it isn’t more damaging than beneficial. Social media should be a fun and cool experience, and, above all… sociable. attireclub.org |

Fashion Quotes

“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” - Coco Chanel “Elegance is a question of personality, more than one’s clothing.” - Jean-Paul Gaultier “Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.”

- Diana Vreeland

“Elegance is elimination.” - Cristóbal Balenciaga 32 | InCompanytAttirehClub

“When you hear designers complaining about the challenge of their profession, you have to say: Don’t get carried away — it’s only dresses.” - Karl Lagerfeld

“A man should look as if he has bought his clothes with intelligence, put them on with care and then forgotten all about them.” - Hardy Amies “Dressing well is a form of good manners.” - Tom Ford “It is both delusional and stupid to think that clothes don’t really matter and we should all wear whatever we want. Most people don’t take clothing seriously enough, but whether we should or not, clothes do talk to us and we make decisions based on people’s appearances.

- G. Bruce Boyer “Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.” - Coco Chanel attireclub.org |

I N

T H E I R

OW N

WO R D S

The

Christian Bendek Florence Look Book

Christian Bendek is an American blogger who has a strong online following. On his website, he shares photos and thoughts on the things he wears and does. Christian was raised in the Caribbean and often returns to the area, where he models for great style shots. His photos from the Ritz-Carlton Aruba, St. Barts or the Sandals Royal resort in Barbados are making it around the world through his social platforms. He was recently in Florence and shared with us some photos of the outfits he wore in the beautiful Italian city. Christian also answered our quick questionnaire, as we wanted to find out what makes him tick and where he finds his inspiration. How do you define style? Christian Bendek: Style is having that “Zsa Zsa Zsu” in the way you present yourself that becomes a distinctive characteristic of your persona.

Which brands and designers do you like? What do you like about them? CB: I love Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, they’re just so sexy and colorful.

How would you describe your personal style? CB: Moody, I dress according to my mood, and I believe that makes fashion more fun and an extension of your personality.

Do you have any grooming tips you found work well? CB: Finding a good hairdresser and a barber!

Who are some people you look at for style inspiration? CB: Jonny Pierce from The Drums, Moti Ankari, old movies, JFK... lately I love Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando. Do you follow trends? CB: Sometimes, sometimes not, I like fashion, I love adding new things to my wardrobe, for example, I have been adding neon accents to my wardrobe for the past months.

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How do you spend your free time? CB: On my couch watching TV or with my friends having cocktails. What are you currently obsessed with, fashion- and otherwise? CB: Crying cat memes, Versace, neon pieces... myself. Always be obsessed with yourself, there’s no love like selflove. Check out Christian’s website at christianbendek.com

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Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s All about Passion for Fashion

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S T Y L E

D I A RY

SUMMER FINDS Scrapbooking the Summer

Bow tie by Attire Club

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Camera strap by InTePro

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Sunglasses by Carbonic

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Pocket square by Attire Club

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Golf ball by Titleist

Suspenders by Rampley & Co.

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Bow tie by Attire Club

Vintage Raketa World Time watch

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Sneaker by Puma

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FA S H I O N

H I S TO RY

The Ups and Downs of Hat-Wearing

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he time between the late 19th century and the end of the 1920s was the peak of hat-wearing in menswear, as it was a time when it was common to see men wearing hats all the time and anywhere. However, this habit has changed over the years and at the beginning of the 21st century, wearing a classic hat was already seen as a bit of an eccentricity or “bold” style statement.

At the 1923 English FA Cup Final (between West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers)

These days, many men are interested in bringing back classic hats, with a demand in styles that were popular in the first part of the 20th century. Classic hat styles such as fedoras, trilbys and Panama hats bring the wearer not just style, but also protection from rain, snow or the sun. In this case, why did men throughout the 20th century stop wearing hats and why they may make a come-back now?

s with most trends and social tendencies, there is no one clear reason why men didn’t wear as many hats after 1930, as they had before, but there are as usual a few factors, most of which are, as usual, economically driven. The main cause why the practice of hat-wearing diminished from about 1930 onwards was the rapid popularization of cars and public means of transport. As covered cars became common, the need for wearing a hat dropped. Not only did most men go directly from the main part of the house to their garage and thus, they didn’t need a hat to protect their head from drizzle, but many cars also had rather low roofs, which meant that wearing a hat could have given you a bit of a claustrophobic feel, as you would have felt smushed into your attireclub.org |

car. In the USA alone, in the year 1920 less than 1% of the population drove a car. 20 years later, in 1940, 1 in four people had a car and by 1970, 55% of Americans had cars. Surely, men still had hats, but they were no longer as common as they were in the days when people walked, rode horses or traveled by open carriages. Sadly, but interestingly enough, the Second World War was also a cause of why men stopped wearing hats after 1945. A survey conducted in 1947 by the Hat Research Foundation (yes, we know), revealed that 19% of men gave up on wearing hats because they had to wear them in the army. The survey came after the Hat Research Foundation tried to promote hats using slogans like “You Need A Hat To Work Magic”. However, they later discovered that a catchy slogan can’t heal deep reasons.

The Dublin hurling team look on, as a very happy Harry Boland smiles directly at the camera while Michael Collins shakes hands with a gentleman the National Library of Ireland identified as G.A.A. General Secretary Luke O’Toole.

oing bareheaded was a trend that, like many trends, got lots of people in angry. Yes, bad trends like some of the things we see today are not the first ones to cause anger. In Britain for example, there were reports of bareheaded men getting harassed on the streets of big hat-making towns such as Denton or Stockport by workers who considered their livelihoods to be under threat. And unfortunately, they were quite right. Even though in the US, there was even a National Hat Day invented, people were still not interested enough in hats to spend lots of money on them.

he recent “rediscovery” of classic menswear (ca. 2007-2013) saw a throwback to classic styles, which included classic hats, which were upgraded and done with new and fresh materials so that they can be worn by today’s men.

oreover, the hipster subculture, which tries to live “the dream of the 1890s” brought back old-timey hats to the forefront of male fashion. In 2014, Top Man reported a 26% year-on-year increase in terms of hat sales, and online retailer Asos claimed that their hat sales have more than doubled.

FUN FACTS ABOUT HATS

London black taxies are made tall so that a gentleman can ride in them without taking off a top hat.

French Magician Louis Comte was first to pull out a rabbit from a top hat in 1814.

The first record of a hat is in a painting in a White tall chef hats traditionally have 100 cave at Lussac-les-Chateaux in Central France pleats to represent hundreds of ways an egg can and it dates back to around 15000 BC. be prepared. They were invented by cuisine inventors Marie-Antoine Carème and Auguste The revenue in the European Hats & Caps Escoffier as a method of establishing hierarchy segment amounts to US$5,386m in 2019. The in the kitchen. market is expected to grow annually by 3.2%.

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We can see today many men wear fedoras and newsboys hats, but not so many bowler hats, which are worn only by the â&#x20AC;&#x153;daringâ&#x20AC;?. Surely, there is also a commercial push today â&#x20AC;&#x201C; brands want to sell accessories, so they reinvent classic styles, but it looks like the push comes more from the audience and less from brands and stores.

t can be said that now men can wear hat both for aesthetic reasons (very often, adding a hat will make you look more structured and polished), but also for practical reasons, as many people spend much time outside, they ride bikes instead of driving cars and could use a stylish protection from the sun, snow or drizzle.

A sea of hats

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N for NEW YORK CITY T R AV E L

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C U LT U R E

New York City, popularly known as The Big Apple is considered by many to be the most important city in the world in terms of popular culture and media. The “city that never sleeps” has served as inspiration and background for millions of works of art, movies, television shows, songs and everything you can think of. It’s a multicultural metropolis that draws millions of tourists annually and is known for being a city where you can find pretty much anything you want. In this feature, we take a look at NYFW’s home town, as we check out some fun facts about the ultimate city of skyscrapers. attireclub.org |

NEW YORK CITY is composed of five boroughs: Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. THE ORIGINAL NAME of the city was New Amsterdam. The name changed in 1664, when the city came under English control. THE OLDEST BUILDING in NYC dates back to 1642. It is called the Wyckoff Farm. THE CITY GOT ITS FAMOUS NICKNAME from a local newspaper’s horse racing column in the 1920s. Before, the phrase Big Apple was used to describe a big money prize at important horse races held around the city. WITH A POPULATION OF 8.6 million and growing, New York City is the largest city in the United States of America. NEW YORK CITY’S 837 KM / 520 MILES COASTLINE is longer than those of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Miami together. THE STATUE OF LIBERTY was a gift from France and meant to honor the United States’ dedication to values such as democracy and freedom and to celebrate the alliance formed during the American Revolution between the two countries. There is a second Statue of Liberty, a smaller version, in Paris, France. Even though it is a symbol of NYC, the underwater land on which it

stands belongs to New Jersey. THE FIRST WHITE HOUSE, where George Washington lived and worked as the first president of the US was where the Brooklyn Bridge now stands. BETWEEN 1789 AND 1790, New York City was America’s capital. THERE ARE OVER 800 languages spoken in NYC, making it the most linguistically diverse city on the planet. IN ORDER TO OWN A TAXI IN NYC, as of 2014, it costs about $1400000 for an independent medallion.

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THE ORIGINAL COLORS OF TAXIS were green and red. The first gasoline-powered cab company which was founded in 1907 adapted the color yellow, which was already in use in other US cities, only in 1912.

THERE IS A SPECIAL TOUR dedicated to pizza in the city. BIRDWATCHERS have counted 275 species of birds in Central Park.

YRead this article with a song!

MOVING DAY was a thing in NYC from colonial times through the beginning of the 20th century as nearly everyone who needed to move apartments did so on May 1st. The custom caused chaos and traffic jams as the streets became clogged with horse-drawn moving vans and furniture. In the end, this odd practice began to disappear in the 1920s.

way ride for 50 years now. Financial analysts have named this phenomenon The Pizza Principle.

THE PRICE OF A PIZZA SLICE has been equal to the cost of a subattireclub.org |

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY has over 50 million books available.

the press only. THE ONLY TIME FASHION WEEK WAS CANCELD was in September 2001.

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE is actually 11 years older than Tower Bridge in London. THERE ARE 380000 millionaires living in NYC. THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING was the world’s tallest structure from its construction in 1931 up until 1972. THE EMPIRE STATE BUILD-

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ING has its own zip code. ON AVERAGE, a front row at New York Fashion Week holds 130 seats. THE INITIAL VERSION OF FASHION WEEK, which was actually called Press Week was open to

THERE IS A LUXURY BOMB SHELTER three feet under the Flushing Meadows Park in Queens. THE LOWLINE, formerly known as the Delancey Underground, is a park under construction that will be the world’s first underground park. Located in Manhattan, the park is planned to open its gates in 2021.

Photo: Angus Chiang

T R E N D S

Angus Chiang Unveils His New Summer Collection Angus Chiang recently unveiled his summer 2019 collection in Paris. The Taiwanese designer, known for his bright colors, knitwear and quirky styles designed for a young audience proposed a new collection that featured many neon colors and shapes that were directly drawn from the streets of the crowded neighborhoods and suburban areas of the world. The collection had a bit of a retro vibe too, which is a

strong trend today, as many designers look for inspiration at the recently passed decades, mostly towards the 1980s. However, Chiang looked at the past decade of the 2000s, which was clearly visible in his many CD-inspired pieces, on which he commented â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even though people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really use CDs anymore and everything is so digitalized, I think of them as a memento of a time when you could really connect with music and create memories that should never be forgotten.â&#x20AC;? attireclub.org |

Current Obsessions Ferdinand Berthoud

World Adventure Watches

Longines

Alpina Zannetti Patek Philippe

Chronoswiss

Breitling

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Ateliers deMonaco

Andersen Geneve

MeisterSinger

Laventure

Oris Valpin

YCheck out this feature with a song!

Tudor

Sinn

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LievArts.com

Seeing Sounds

L E

B O N

T E M P S

The Breitling Superocean Héritage II Chronograph 44 Outerknown Breitling’s new Superocean Héritage II Chronograph 44 Outerknown is the result of the brand’s partnership with Outerknown, a sustainable clothing company dedicated to improving the state of the planet’s environment.

The watch features a first for Breitling, as the strap is crafted from ECONYL® yarn, an innovative material created from nylon waste. One of the sources of this waste is represented by fishing nets found in oceans around the world.

The partnership with Outerknown also served as the inspiration for the pattern of the strap, which is based on a fabric produced by the clothing company. The strap’s color – taffeta dark blue – is meant to reflect the connection between the watch and the oceans. Moreover, the Superocean Héritage II Chronograph 44 Outerknown is also presented in packaging made entirely of recycled materials. More: breitling.com attireclub.org |

The

AttirehClub

Party HANDBOOK A party can mean many things: from a small get-together with friends to a lavish dinner or a night of dancing on the beach. Regardless of the type of party you throw or attend, there are certain elements that can make a party more interesting and fun.

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I. Planning a modern, but Timeless party Parties are more than just a fun get-together. They are an opportunity to network, meet new people and renew social bonds. What you might not be aware of is the anthropological link between parties and social standing. Essentially, according to Scientific American, a party is an opportunity to express not just your style in terms of clothes, but your personality and taste as well. Therefore, planning is a big part of it, which is why it is essential to take time and think of the steps that will make your event a memorable one and boost your s o c i a l standing, through dress, setting and execution. comfortable, as they will feel obligated to What’s in a dress code? An easy and straightforward way to put a memorable party into motion is through deploying a dress code. Terms like ‘casual’ and ‘formal’ can lead to too much interpretation, so give your guests a good set of guidelines in order to plan to. Also, many people misuse terms like “black tie” or “formal”. In order not to restrict personalization, consider a theme that is centered around fun. For example, casino themed parties are often formal, but encourage the use of subtle flavor; a polka dot bow tie here, or velveteen jacket there. If you are unsure of how to describe your event’s dress code, simply state “business casual”, “creative casual”, or “creative business casual, etc”. This way, people will understand that you don’t need them to necessarily dress up to the nines, but that they should not be coming as they would go to a pool party, unless you are actually throwing a pool party (or, why not, a winter party themed as a pool party).

Planning the setting

An observed dress code is one thing – but you must have an environment to match it. There are literally countless options available, from small and cozy urban settings to the pomp and pageantry of government buildings like London’s Westminster Palace. The bookings industry can be ferociously competitive for spaces, and costs can be inflated too. Ensure that your chosen venue is picked well ahead of time. The alternative is to host the party at your own home. This gives you full reign over time and the choice and style of décor used. If you don’t have the budget to rent a big party space, but still want to go for something special, you can simply throw the party in a rather unusual space. For example, you can throw a party on a field, in a mountain lodge, in the countryside, etc. Depending on the people you invite, having a “quirky” setting where people need to go can be highly appreciated.

match your attitude. Make sure you enjoy the night, that you tie together the experience for your guests, and that you finish it happy. The key to being a good host is to make sure you get to spend time with all your guests, remember why you throw the party and generally be in the moment.

Additional information

To make a party more memorable, you can do something that people will either remember for a long time, or take with them back home. For example, a tombola or having someone sing or lighting up lanterns can all be small details that make your party for the books. The next time you are throwing a party, make it a landmark event. Something stylish and cogent, but fun, too. The rewards of a well-planned and executed party are tangible, and your friends will remember it for a long time, be hungry for the next one and have a great deal of appreciation for your effort.

Execution of your party

As the organizer and host of a party, you will often feel weighed down by responsibility to making everyone happy. Your attitude should be far from it. Act as a statesman – speak to your guests, hear their concerns and compliments for the event, but don’t bend over backwards to get everything done. You should be welcoming and accommodating, but not over the top, as this can make people unattireclub.org |

II. 5 Key Details of a Successful Party From time to time, we all throw a nice party where we invite our friends, colleagues or family. Regardless of the type of party you want to throw, there are a few things you need to get just right. It often happens that someone who organizes a party will consider a lot of details, but they will miss out on certain aspects that, if not attended, can make your guests uncomfortable. Music

Probably every party these days has some sort of musical theme. Regardless of whether you are throwing a party for a bunch of kids or a rock party, you need to make sure the music is crowd-appropriate and to the level accepted by the crowd and the community. You don’t need your neighbors calling out on you. This might sound obvious, but it happens very often for the “DJ” to believe that he is going to play only

one type of music and everyone is going to appreciate it, because “how can they not?”. Always consider your crowd and find that common musical denominator that defines your crowd. Moreover, if you are having a mix of very diverse people, try to find something they will all enjoy rather than playing one song for each person. If you do this, everyone is going to like only one song and hate the others, rather than feeling good about listening to just one song

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they liked.

Food

Probably one of the crucial elements of a party is the food. Food can mean anything from pop-corn to highend soufflés. Again, the key is to make it occasion and guest list appropriate. But you know this already. However, one thing you should always remember when considering food for a party is whether there is anyone who will be there who follows a special diet. Consider who is

a vegan, who eats kosher and who is on a medical diet. Always make sure that if you have guest who are following a diet, they will have a meal that is just as good as everyone else’s. There’s nothing more wrong than to say “Well, we’ll have the turkey and the shrimp and you will have the pretzels”. Another food-related element to consider are the drinks. You should always

make sure you have just enough drinks, but not more than you would like your guest to consume. Moreover, keep in mind that you should have all types of drinks, from club soda to alcohol and natural juices – don’t limit yourself to just one type of drink.

Attire

We are not going to enter in all the details regarding how to dress for different occasions, we will have another article on that topic, but what we need to point out is that you should always communicate the expected attire with your guests. This is not a formality for formality’s sake, but a tool to make sure everyone will be comfortable and that all of your guests fit in. We all know how bad it feels to stand out in a negative way because of the way you are dressed, which is why it is crucial to tell people how you expect them to dress. Words like “casual” or “casual, but for the evening” are enough, you don’t need to learn terminology like “black tie”, “white tie” and the differences between them unless, of course, you are throwing a party where this type of attire is required. However, these parties are quite rare.

Smoking

If the weather allows, an outdoors party is always a great idea! Every party planner or host needs to make sure both the guests who smoke will be comfortable a well as those who don’t. Discriminating between the two categories will make some people feel out of place, which is why you should always make sure there is room for those who want to smoke and that there is enough clear air for those who don’t. You can either have a very well ventilated room or a special smoking place (the problem solves itself you have an outside party), but we don’t advise you to have a smokers room and a non-smokers one. This way, you will only discriminate based on a criterion that is never good enough. Should you have guests who vape, we guess it wouldn’t make a big difference if they did it outdoor or indoor because it is not actual smoke as some think.

Furthermore, always consider how much and where you can expand. For example, if you are throwing a party at home, you might want to keep your guests out of the bedroom. However, if you are inviting more people than you have room, you might see some people spread out in the bedroom as well, which might be uncomfortable for you. Also, if you have your party in a rented location, always ask what is off-limits and how much you can spread. Going outside the imposed limits is going to have a bad effect on the outcome of the party. If you did not pay for the garden of the rented party venue, you might not be allowed to make use of it, so always check with the appropriate person.

Additional information

There are other things you should consider when throwing a party, but these are not as crucial to the comfort of your guest and the success of your party as the top three elements we mentioned above. Other elements to consider are: Do you want to have a themed party? Do you need a budget for the party? How long does the party last? Is there a need for any kind of decorations? How will you be serving the foods and drinks: open bar, portioned, open buffet, etc.? Now that you have this quick checklist of the 5 most important details to take care of when throwing a party as well as a list of secondary elements to consider, you will throw amazing parties, regardless of the theme, place and time of the event!

Space

One thing you really need to make sure you have enough of is space. Of course, it’s not always going to be possible for your parties to take place in very vast spaces, but you should at least make sure that everyone is able to sit or simply move around. If you are planning on dancing, you should make sure everyone can dance at the same time, otherwise you risk making some people uncomfortable. Moreover, make sure you have enough room to store everything from jackets to bags and purses and that they don’t get lost or dirty. attireclub.org |

III. Tips On Being a Good Host and Guest Hosting an event or party or being invited to one are things people do since the dawn of modern civilization. Even though the rules have changed, some things have remained constant and are crossing all cultures. There are a few time-,age-,gender-,etc-less things that never change when it comes to being a good host or a good guest and this is what we are discussing in this post. It is very important to make people comfortable, this is the key to being both a good host and a good guest. Regardless of the connection you have with the other people present at the event, making them feel comfortable is the right way to go. In the end, isn’t this what happy get-togethers are all about? Being uncomfortable in a sea of joy is not something you are looking forward to, so here are the main tips you should follow in order to be a good host and guest! Of course, some things are not even worth mentioning, such as the fact that you don’t enter a room you are not allowed to or don’t change the host’s plans, as well as, as a host, you don’t put your guest’s jacket in a place where they will catch a smell from the kitchen. Assuming all these things have been learned, here are some useful etiquette tips:

Being a good host

A good host is a person who takes care of their guests before of anything else. Even if something goes wrong, it’s not as important as a guest having a bad time. People come first in any situation. As a host of a bigger party or event, don’t be afraid to delegate and trust others to do certain things. However, it is not polite to “burden” your guests, so keeping a balance between “giving a hand” and “working on the party” is essential. Here is some advice on how to channeling your inner host:

The good host…

When they invite people, they make sure that they let their guests know exactly when, where and how to get to the place they need to be! A good host doesn’t let half of the expected guests to come an hour late, get lost, or not to know how to get where they need to be. A great host makes plans, but doesn’t go too much into details. He makes sure there’s food and drinks, enough chairs, enough space, enough forks and so on; but is also not too micro-planned, as if something doesn’t work the way it was supposed to, the rest is at risk of falling like

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a game of dominoes. A good host makes his guests feel good. While it’s essential to mingle with everyone, it would be best not to show up for just a second in each conversation and then be gone, as longer, more insightful conversations are more memorable than the five-second contribution. This of course, has a lot to do with the context and the environment. To be sure that all hist guests are comfortable, he finds out beforehand if somebody is not in tandem with certain aspects of the party, and adjusts them. A god host doesn’t make a fuss! If something goes wrong, a dish does not turn our the way he wanted to, he lets it go and moves on! Most people are probably not even going to notice it, and if they do, don’t forget, they’re human too, they’ll understand. The good host adjusts the tone of the get-together to how people feel. If he wants to do something the others don’t, he lets it be, or if the atmosphere is not what he wanted it to be, he doesn’t overdo it, as this won’t do his get-together any good.

A good host is appreciative! He always makes sure that he thanks everyone for coming and makes sure to show his appreciation of the potential gifts the guests bring.

Being a good guest

As a good guest, your role is to make the best of whatever comes your way. The rule is not to overdo anything, not to criticize and underestimate what happens. In short,...

The good guest…

A good guest is not someone who simply shows up. First of all, he must make it very clear to the host on whether he is attending the party or not. As a guest, you can kindly ask on whether you should bring something. Communication is key! The good guest makes sure he dresses occasion-appropriate! Being too over-dressed or too under-dressed makes other people feel bad, as it denotes disrespect for the gathering. The good guest doesn’t bring anyone with him! This tip does not need any additional commentary. You can bring someone with you though, if it’s something you and the host find normal, but in general that is simply a big don’t!

The good guest can bring a small gift. A good guest doesn’t want to bring something too big or too small, as extremes can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. The good guest doesn’t drink too much. There’s nothing wrong with drinking a lot and loving them, but too much is too much! The same (and then some) applies to eating as well! The good guest is careful with the topics of conversation he puts on the table. When a discussion is starting to emerge, he doesn’t throw it away by saying things that imply that everyone else is stupid, a good guest does not get into arguments and doesn’t bang tables or has a similar behavior. The good guest thanks the host, but doesn’t exaggerate! It’s mandatory to thank the host, but not a hundred times! What any meeting or gathering needs is a balance and simply a good time. Etiquette is not something that’s strict of formal, but it’s something derived out of respect and common sense. Making sure you are the best you can in any circumstance is the way to go and it is a very important thing that can make a party or gathering a memorable event.

The good guest greets the people he meets! The rule of thumb is that the person who walks into a room must say hello, not the people who are there.

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PartyGoers The world of fashion is full of parties of all types: from elegant dinners to night-long clubbing events, there is something for everyone. We asked three frequent party-goers to give us a zinger, a thought or a list of to-do’s for a successful party and here they are:

Tracey "The Diamonds Girl" Ellison Blogger / instagram superstar, Miami, USA thediamondsgirl.net A good party has several key ingredients... top of the list is interesting people - they will make a great party anywhere! But a beautiful location does help set the mood, especially when combined with great music and plentiful drinks! I love when I turn around a drink “magically” appears, there is nothing that kills the mood more than having to line up at a bar for a drink! Also, it’s never about the food! I’ve never gone home and thought “wow, that was a great night, the food was amazing”.

Linda Charoenlab Designer - LaLaLove Bangkok, Thailand lalaloveworld.com

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Alessandro Maria Ferreri, CEO of The Style Gate Milan, Italy thestylegate.com Usually, whoever is asked about the essential features that a party has to have to be successful, probably would answer “drinks and girls” as this seems the general requirement. Still, this is essential for a “get-together” while a “party” is something way more serious. If you want to throw a real good one, here as follows my suggestions: A) Never exceed with the number of guests and never allow anyone to bring a “+1”: you have to have the control on every single guest and the way he might interact with the others. B) Try to have a variety of people, not only because “diversity” has become in these days a value to support but because you do not want your party to turn into a boring “wasp end-of-school dinner in the Hamptons”. C) Keep in mind that people, no matter how fashionable they are, are always extremely hungry: prepare very nice and tasty food even when you invite for after dinner, to prevent also your guests to get drunk quickly. D) In organizing drinks spots in the party place, put on the side a spot where people can get quickly a glass of water or lights drinks or a beer. Elsewhere you will put a barman with cocktails: guests hate to queue for just a coke. E) Music is the essence but only in the second half of the party: guests like to interact before they hit the dance floor. F) An ice cream corner will be the most appreciated spot of the party: who is on diet or does not want to eat the birthday cake or the finger food, will be relieved in seeing fruit ice cream as an option. G) Always suggest a theme: nothing so strict but still something to help people to aesthetically look a bit more coordinated in the photos. H) And, speaking of photos, suggest in the invitation card an Instagram hashtag for the night: guests adore starting posting pictures already while getting ready for the party. I) Hire for the night some male and some female models to mix with the guests: they will be already there when first people arrive to make them not to feel “the first ones” and also to have an immediate sense of coolness about the night. L) Washroom and cloak room facilities have to work perfectly: cleanness, efficiency, speediness and organization are of the essence. M) While saying goodbye, always give to every guest a little gift as a memory of the night with a thank you card. attireclub.org |

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S T Y L E

G U I D E

The Guide to Caring for Velvet Shoes

Photo: Attire Club

elvet shoes are probably one of the most practical and beautiful style items in menswear. Any man who has a pair of velvet shoes can count on them to style up his outfits and take them to a whole new level.

In the fabrics world, velvet is a very rich and elegant material. It has depth and is very smooth and therefore, anything that has a good design and is made from velvet is a great item. However, the downside to velvet in general and velvet shoes in particular is that they are quite hard to maintain. Because they are a bit pretentious, it’s hard to wear them in any condition. While they might be versatile in the sense that they go with a wide variety of outfits and are therefore suited in many social contexts, they are not very versatile when it comes to conditions. Velvet shoes are best to be worn inside, as outside conditions can make them go bad quite quickly. But you can’t always have what you want and sometimes your velvet shoes will suffer because of dust, dirt, snow or other things. This is when knowing a few tricks on cleaning them might come in handy. Spray They say that prevention is the best cure. This is why, before wearing your velvet shoes, you should treat them with a stain and water protector spray. Make sure the spray is right for your shoes in particular, as otherwise you will risk ruining them. Also, even if you use a protection spray, you should do your best not to walk in the rain in velvet shoes, as they might get damaged anyway. Protective spray is used to make them easier to clean.

soft) as an alternative. Move it carefully over the shoes in one direction. This way, you will not bring any damage to the fabric. Washing stains Use a mix of mild dish detergent and water to remove small stains. Take a soft toothbrush and apply the mixture to the shoes in very small amounts. Meanwhile, do your best to keep the shoes dry. Scrub the mark with the toothbrush, and then let it sit for a few minutes and only then wipe it away. If the stain persists, repeat the process. For best results, we recommend using a natural, soft detergent. Additional information As an additional piece of information, you should always remember that if a mark or stain is too big or deep, you should probably take them to a professional shoe cleaner. These might be hard to find in smaller cities, but they might help if you can find a good one. While you must always be careful of how and when you wear your velvet shoes (avoid rain, avoid snow, avoid dirt, dust and everything else), velvet shoes can make for a wonderful sartorial companion that will style up your looks in no time. You can dress them up and down and wear them both casually and in dressier settings. Velvet shoes make for a wonderful addition to any man or woman’s wardrobe, so we definitely recommend investing in a pair if you want to be very stylish and enjoy them as much as we do. Maintaining them properly will help you enjoy your shoes for a longer time and can bring you many good sartorial moments.

Removing dust If you get a bit of dust on your velvet shoes you can do some basic cleaning by wiping it away with a dry cloth. You can also use a soft shoe brush (with emphasis on attireclub.org |

FA S H I O N

A N D

T E C H

What to Wear in Space? NASA works on new space suits designed to improve living and working conditions for astronauts on future missions. A new Moon mission was recently announced and apparently plans to send a new crew to our natural satellite are already underway. This is a long and hard task, but then again, so are the other space missions proposed by other space agencies and pretty much every other mission proposed by NASA - they even want to conquer Mars. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a long time since man has last stepped on the Moon, but this does not mean that there were no people exploring space from shuttles such as the International Space Station. In this sense, NASA is currently developing the next generation of suit technologies that will allow for a better exploration of space, according to them. To do this, the organization will incorporate in their suits advancements such as regenerable carbon dioxide removal systems and water evaporation systems that will provide crew members more efficiently with their core necessities such as breathing air and temperature regulation. Moreover, mobility and fit of a pressurized suit are of high importance in keeping astronauts productive and therefore, NASA is focusing on space suit designs meant to help crews work more efficiently and safely during spacewalks. Furthermore, NASA is evaluating pressurizable space suits for missions to a variety of exploration destinations.

The Z-2 Suit

The new Z-2 suit is thought as a planetary surface suit as it is designed for maximum astronaut productivity on a planetary surface. Thus, an astronaut will have an easier time than be-

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The Z-2 suit Photo: NASA

Astronaut Jack R. Lousma, Skylab 3 pilot, participates in the Aug. 6, 1973 spacewalk. He and astronaut Owen K. Garriott, science pilot, deployed the twin-pole solar shield to help shade the Orbital Workshop. Note the striking reflection of Earth in Lousmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s helmet visor. Photo: NASA

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The PXS suit Photo: NASA

fore exploring, collecting samples, and maneuvering in and out of habitats and rovers. The Z-2 makes use of advanced composites to achieve a light-weight, high-durability suit that can withstand long-duration missions in the harsh environments found on Mars. Adjustable shoulder and waist sizing features allow for the maximization of the range of crewmember sizes who can fit into any single suit.

The PXS Suit

The PXS suit is an innovative piece. For it, NASA worked on improving the suitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fit and performance while mitigating the amount of equipment needed for long-duration missions to low-Earth orbit and beyond. This suit uses a novel approach incorporating sizing features that could in the near future even be 3-D printed on-orbit, in transit, or on Mars to achieve a customized fit for any crew member or change the orientation of bearings to optimize EVA mobility for the different phases of a mission. Space suits have come a long way from the first suits worn by astronauts on their missions in the 1960s and 70s, but there is still much advancement that can be made as technology progresses. These suits are obviously made for outside missions, which means that inside the shuttles crew members can wear pretty much anything they like. So, in this regard, we are looking forward to putting on a fashion show in imponderability.

1 Past space seasons

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Mercury Gloves, Helmet and Boots 1961 Photo: NASA

(Left) Two members of the prime crew of the first manned Skylab mission assist each other in suiting up in Building 5 at NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Johnson Space Center in Houston during a pre-launch training activity. They are scientist-astronaut Joseph P. Kerwin (left), science pilot, and astronaut Paul J. Weitz, pilot. May 1973 Photo: NASA

Your Style Is Worth Your While

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C A R S

Rolls-Royce Celebrates 115 Years of Excellence On 4 May 1904, Charles Rolls and Henry Royce met for the very first time at The Midland Hotel in Manchester, UK. This encounter would change the course of automotive history. 115 years later, the label they decided to establish that day is still a global symbol for innovation and excellence, being one of the most famous luxury brands (from all fields in the world). According to Rolls Royce’s anniversary release, “the century (and more) that has elapsed since their first 10hp machine made its debut at the Paris Salon has seen materials, technology and manufacturing methods utterly transformed. Yet in several key areas, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars retains unbroken links to those pioneering days; and in its approach, instincts and values, it would

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be immediately – and pleasingly – recognisable to its founding fathers.” Moreover, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive, Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars added that they are “deeply conscious of our heritage: it is a tremendous privilege to be continuing and building on work that began 115 years ago,” and added “but we also understand that our founders were visionaries, always looking to do things in new and different ways. It’s that spirit of excellence and innovation that Rolls-Royce Motor Cars embodies and celebrates today.” More: rolls-royce.com

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Four Seasons Art

THE ATTIRE CLUB MOOD DIARY Our mood board as a visual journal

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This embroidered bejewelled bookbinding belonged to Elizabeth I

Embroidered Book Covers When thinking of embroidery, most people think, of course, about models and patterns sewed onto clothing in order to embellish them. What many people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know is that in history, embroidery was used not just for clothing and textile accessories, but also for books. These covers are amazing not just due to the great use of a technique that is usually associated with fashion (maybe today we would call that â&#x20AC;&#x153;mixed artsâ&#x20AC;?), but also because of the great value that was placed on these book covers. Because the content of books was extremely important in those times, the objects themselves had to reflect this importance and thus amazing materials and the highest quality of craftsmanship were used. For example, we can see book covers made form velvet and embroidered with gold or silver threads - something that even for 21st century standards would be a rarity and an amazing work. Take some time to realize how hard it was to extract, process and use these materials back in the 16th or 17th centuries and you can already tell how precious these books really are. attireclub.org | 85

17th century embroidered canvas book, pictorial angel and floral motif with two red ribbons. The Booke of Common Prayer London, 1611

17th century embroidered satin book cover with silver threads. Good Newes from Heaven London, 1631

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17th century satin embroidered book cover with threads of colored silk â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;wovenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; across upper and lower covers. The Whole Booke of Psalmes London, 1627

Elaborate embroidered binding with the Arms of Pope Clement XIV. 4to. Containing engraved portrait frontispiece and approximately 20 printed leaves of various extracts from lives of Clement XIV. Late 18th century red cloth with embroidered detail in gold thread.

Back cover of an embroidered satin book with bird motif and remnants of a pair of satin ties. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. [and] The Whole Booke of Davids Psalmes. London, 1640

17th century silver and gold thread book cover constructed from silk over early handmade paper. The religious symbolism of the decoration, the measurements and in particular the fact that the measurements would not permit the inclusion of many pages, suggest that this was likely intended to carry a letter or instruction, possibly from a pope or other religious leader, for envoys sent abroad to embassies or other missions.

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17th century embroidered velvet book cover. A Comfortable Treatise, for the reliefe of such as are afflicted in Conscience: revised the third time, interlaced, and enlarged in many places. London, 1620

Back cover of an embroidered satin book cover with two sets of metal clasps. The Whole Booke of Davids Psalmes Edinburgh, 1644

Front cover of an embroidered satin book with remnants of a pair of satin ties. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. [and] The Whole Booke of Davids Psalmes. London, 1640

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17th-century English embroidered binding with scenes of King David with a harp on the front cover, and Time with a scythe and an hourglass on the rear cover. The spine is decorated florally, and the edges of the textblock are decorated with gilding, gauffering and painting. Of the imitation of Christ London, 1617

The New Testament The Netherlands 1688-1700

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C I N E M A

C U LT U R E

1 Essential Fashion Film: Diana Vreeland: The Eye Must Travel

iana Vreeland: The Eye Must Travel is a 2011 documentary directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland. The 1 hour 32 minutes film tells the story of an absolute original: Diana Vreeland. Diana is best known as the editor of fashion magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue and for her enormous impact on what beauty and style were throughout the 20th century and, by extension, what they are today. The film begins by taking us back to the beginning of the 20th century, when Diana and her family moved from Paris to New York. Positively influenced by the beauty of the belle époque but always put down by her mother, who always claimed she was extremely ugly, Diana dived into the music scene of the 1920s where she finally found herself. A friend of Coco Chanel, Diana understood the massive impact clothes and fashion would have in the 20th century and educated herself in terms of all things style, luxury and so much more. With an eye for beauty and a taste for originality and rhythm, it was Diana who popularized things such as blue jeans, the bikini and many fashion trends, some of which were later on to become timeless fashion staples. She was also one of the people behind the rise to success of celebrities such as Cher, Mick Jagger and Lauren Bacall. Diana Vreeland expressed fantasy through the world she created along the years, and claimed that, without style, you are nobody. Later, she even was the inspiration for a series of film characters, being the archetype of the dynamic, strong, compulsive, demanding woman running a business like no other. The film duplicates Diana’s wish to never be boring and it is a great production you will enjoy. The clips of Diana speaking in interviews recorded for her autobi-

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ography which was never done, alternate with amazing documentary photographs and Vogue spreads from the time she worked there as well as with archive footage. Together, these complete the magic world in which Diana made it seem to have lived. Diana Vreeland was a native rebel and a great storyteller. She was able to tell stories in both writing and through image and to deliver things the world had not seen before. What was interesting about her is that she brought a new concept in the world, which was that even if one was not the classic image of a model, one could still be regarded as beautiful and we have to thank her for that legacy. Diana’s biography, as told by herself, has a lot of surprises that will make you gasp. She was a true style icon and a source of inspiration, as, as Diane von Furstenberg said about her, “she saw things in people before they saw it themselves”. It is Mrs. Vreeland from whom we’ve learned that “Style—all who have it share one thing: originality.” or that “the only real elegance is in the mind; if you’ve got that, the rest really comes from it” as well as that “you don’t have to be born beautiful to be wildly attractive. The movie is very good for anyone interested in learning more about the cultural background of elegance and beauty or for someone who wants to develop his or her style. Diana Vreeland, who redesigned not only Vogue and the meaning of the word fashion, also redefined the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. She left big shoes to fill and an amazing heritage. This movie is a wonderful portrait of one of fashion’s most important influencers. Diana Vreeland is a landmark of style, beauty and fashion and already a mythological person in the world of modern culture. The film can be watched several times and if you have not seen it yet, you should definitely give it a try! “Diana Vreeland: The Eye Must Travel” is a great portrait and an enormous source of inspiration for anyone.

2 Thoughts on Qui Êtes-Vous, Polly Maggoo?

ho Are You, Polly Maggoo?, originally titled “Qui ÊtesVous, Polly Maggoo?” is 1966 French arthouse film directed by William Klein, and is a satire on the media and fashion world of the mid-60s in the Western world. The movie follows model Polly Maggoo (Dorothy MacGowan), who was considered the It-girl of her time, as she is being filmed and used for a TV documentary that will showcase her glamorous life, as she is the object of desire for a generation. Klein’s movie has received both a lot of applause and a lot of negative criticism, mostly focusing on the way it comments on the fashion world. But today, we can see it in another light. At first, the movie seems to be a production about the power of the supermodel, identity and the role of fashion in modern culture. However, the film goes deeper. At a deeper anaysis, the film is (also) about the way in which the fashion world is perceived by a crowd of non-fashion people who don’t listen, who don’t care to go beyond the surface and who rank people based on superficial things. Grégoire (Jean Rochefort) and his film crew are so obsessed with getting the shot and with all technical details that go into making a movie that they forget the most essential thing, which is to go inside the subject. Grégoire’s life is given more importance by society, as he is allowed to tell his childhood story and to defend his actions, but the same cannot be said about Polly, who is not allowed to speak her mind and who is the perfect puppet. It can be argued that Polly is in fact the deepest character in the film – she sits in her bed, recording her thoughts and questioning whether it is really true that the “laws of fashion are stricter than the laws of philosophy.” Polly Maggoo, who is supposed to sym-

bolize superficiality, is in fact the character who has a critical thinking and the only one who is or wants to be in control of her own actions. Everyone else, by following either the crowd or their egos, seem to be blocked. The prince (Sami Frey), obsessed with an ideal, does not manage to grow up; and the editor, Miss Maxwell (Grayson Hall) - who was inspired by Diana Vreeland, seems to slide off into the opposite of what she should be. In a way, “Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?”, is a film about the way in which the lack of time, of interest or simple miscommunication issues impact and shape the lives of many. William Klein’s movie is a great work that conveys the idea that we should stop and see others – in the Avatar kind of way, if we may make this comparison. Today, Polly Maggoo, even though she would be seen as more superficial and would be treated just as an object as she was in the movie, would have a chance of expressing herself through a vlog or blog. However, and this is the downside of the Internet – one’s personal broadcast only reaches a certain group and doesn’t make it in the mainstream. The question is though – does everything need to make it in the mainstream? Isn’t having an outlet for your fans and peers enough? From a stylistic point of view, the film is very strong – with beautiful, elegant shots, William Klein manages to tell a story of beauty and discusses whether beauty is just skin-deep or not. By choosing to shoot the movie in black and white, in a time when color film was available, the director also manages to convey a message that the mainstream media world is a world where everything is black and white. And boy, how did things not change! In a world where the mainstream won’t take people serious and where people don’t look at others because of all the clutter, wasn’t Polly right when she said she wanted to be a carrot – as carrots have the capability of growing and developing underground, which is often where the real movers and shakers of any society at a given time live and create. attireclub.org |

T E L EV I S I O N

1 Recapping The Crown

As the world is waiting for the third season of The Crown to appear, we are taking a look at the first two seasons of the series and analyze its qualities and paradoxes. The Crown is a British-American Netflix original series based on the reign, life and times of Queen Elizabeth II, from the age she started her reign, moving forward to the 21st century. The premise of the show is a very sensitive one, which has been touched on before, but which is very hard to process for a television series or a film. The reason for this is that creating a series about contemporary people and recent history will of course involve a lot of re-

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The show is a record of a sort of breakdown of society,

especially as portrayed in the “Marionettes” episode and talks about a world that rejects deference, not because it does not need it anymore (as society opens up, in order to maintain order and elegance, deference is needed more than ever), but because it simply no longer wants to be inspired.

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search on the subject, but, ultimately, the characters and events will be fictionalized. In this sense, while it may be tempting to “learn” about the British monarchy from the show, as viewers, we should always keep in mind that we are watching a fictive version of known events. Then, of course, there is the approach to the subject which is also an extremely delicate matter: how (fake) “deep” will the series go - how much backstory will it invent - this is a matter with which the producers had to deal with and it can be said that they have done a rather good job (at least for the first two seasons). The series gained its own personality really quickly through lavish cinematography and powerful performances and has managed to capture the spirit of the old royalty of Britain. The directorial choices to add subtle symbols and mise-en-scène details in order to communicate the emotions and experiences of the characters is magisterial and adds to the artful vision of its creators. The series has garnered a lot of attention from the me-

dia and many magazines and blogs publish reviews of the episodes placing them in parallel with “real-life” gossip about the royals. This is the major paradox of the effect of the series (not of the series itself ), as The Crown discusses the trivialization of the concept of royalty and at the same time (involuntarily) creates more gossip around the royals, as the media treats them as reality stars.

The tone of the series may change, but the first two seasons of the The Crown are a manifesto of people who, in a world of decadence, try to hold on to values and politeness. It’s not clear how the show will continue, but it would be interesting for it to end with the Queen watching a series in 2019 about her life and at the same time crying and laughing at how wrong they are about everything.

T R E N D S

Namacheko Releases Its New Summer Collection Born in Iraqi Kurdistan and raised in Sweden, brother-and-sister duo Dilan and Lezan Lurr are the two main creatives behind Belgian menswear label Namacheko. The two are completely self-taught in the craft of patternmaking, and, in their designs, the Lurr siblings explore ideas such the concept of diaspora, duality, and cultural identity. They are known for merging elements of their Kurdish heritage and European upbringing in simple designs that have a strong personal meaning.

Their work is at the border between minimal and explosive and for their summer 2019 collection, they worked with simple lines and cuts and with a series of bold, highly-saturated colors that gave it a childhood memories-type of vibe, which is quite on trend these days on the runways of the world. The collection, which was shown in Paris, consisted both of menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pieces. attireclub.org |

EV E N TS

The Sardhadchi Cavalry Team in St. Moritz

Photo: Attire Club The Sardhadchi cavalry team from Azerbaijan perfoming their amazing equine show on thoroughbred Karabakh horses for the first time in Switzerland earlier this year during the 35th edition of the Snow Polo World Cup in St. Moritz. Since the team was formed back in 2012, it has been performing at world-class international events regularly; they even appeared at Queen Elizabeth IIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s birthday celebration.

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SUBSCRIPTION

Subscribe to InCompany by Attire Club to make sure you receive your beautiful print copy of each edition. With a focus on quality and sophistication, InCompany by Attire Club magazine explores the fashion world in an original and creative manner. Featuring interviews with creative talents, style guides, stunning photography and carefully curated products and travel recommendations, the goal of the magazine is to present more than the typical fashion publication. Capturing a compelling image of the fashion world, the issue covers both the independent and mainstream areas of fashion and from the very ethnic and old-school to the latest high-tech innovations. Go to levolny.mozello.com to buy the subscription for just â&#x201A;Ź90 (about $102) or just scan the QR code on the left.

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Discover the websites featured in this issue! Daizoh Makihara u daizohmakihara.jp Page 16

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Christian Bendek u christianbendek.com Page 34

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Always Addressing Power Dressing

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Francis Wright Fabyan Jr. by Philip de Lรกszlรณ, 1931

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